United Malays National Organisation

Tunku Abdul Rahman, first Prime Minister of Malaya

In Malaya's first general elections in 1959, the Alliance coalition led by UMNO won 51.8% of the votes and captured 74 out of 104 seats, enough for a two-thirds majority in parliament, which would not only allow them to form the government again but amend the constitution at will. However, for the Alliance, the election was marred by internal strife when MCA leader Lim Chong Eu demanded his party be allowed to contest 40 of the 104 seats available. When the Tunku rejected this, many of Lim's supporters resigned, and ran in the election as independents, which cost the Alliance some seats.[25]

In 1961, the Tunku mooted the idea of forming a federation named "Malaysia", which would consist of the British colonies of Singapore, Sabah, Sarawak, and also the British Protectorate of Brunei. The reasoning behind this was that this would allow the federal government to control and combat communist activities, especially in Singapore. It was also feared that if Singapore achieved independence, it would become a base for Chinese chauvinists to threaten Malayan sovereignty. To balance out the ethnic composition of the new nation, the other states, whose Malay and indigenous populations would balance out the Singaporean Chinese majority, were also included.[26]

After much negotiation, a constitution was hammered out with some minor changes. For instance, the Malay privileges were now made available to all "Bumiputra", a group comprising the Malays and other indigenous peoples of Malaysia. However, the new states were also granted some autonomy unavailable to the original nine states of Malaya. After negotiations in July 1963, it was agreed that Malaysia would come into being on 31 August 1963, consisting of Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak. Brunei ultimately decided to opt out of the federation due in part to an armed revolt by the People's Party (Parti Rakyat Brunei) which objected to the formation of Malaysia,[27] and the Sultan of Brunei Omar Ali Saifuddien III's demand that he be recognised as the most senior Malay ruler—a demand that was rejected.[28]

The Philippines and Indonesia strenuously objected to this development, with Indonesia claiming Malaysia represented a form of neocolonialism and the Philippines claiming Sabah as its territory. The United Nations sent a commission to the region which approved the merger after having delayed the date of Malaysia's formation to investigate. Despite further protests from the Indonesian President, Sukarno, the formation of Malaysia was proclaimed on 16 September 1963. Indonesia then declared a "confrontation" with Malaysia, sending commandos to perform guerilla attacks in East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak). The confrontation was ended when Suharto replaced Sukarno as president. The Philippines, which had withdrawn diplomatic recognition from Malaysia, also recognised Malaysia around the same time.[29]

To reflect the change of name to Malaysia, UMNO's coalition partners promptly altered their names to the Malaysian Chinese Association and the Malaysian Indian Congress. Several political parties in East Malaysia, especially Sarawak, also joined the Alliance to allow it to contest elections there.

In the 1963 Singapore state elections, the Alliance decided to challenge Lee Kuan Yew's governing People's Action Party through the Singapore Alliance Party. UMNO politicians actively campaigned in Singapore for the Singapore Alliance, contending that the Singapore Malays were being treated as second-class citizens under the Chinese-dominated PAP government. All of the UMNO-backed Malay candidates lost to PAP candidates. UMNO Secretary-General Syed Jaafar Albar travelled to Singapore to address the Malay populace. At one rally, he called the PAP Malay politicians un-Islamic and traitors to the Malay race, greatly straining PAP-UMNO relations. The PAP politicians, who saw this as a betrayal of an earlier agreement with the Alliance not to contest elections in Malaysia and Singapore respectively, decided on running on the mainland in the 1964 general election. Although the PAP contested nine Parliamentary seats and attracted large crowds at its rallies, it won only one seat. The strain in race relations caused by the communal lines along which the political factions had been drawn led to the 1964 Race Riots in Singapore.

Alliance leaders also were alarmed at Lee's behaviour, which they considered unseemly for the Chief Minister of a state. They thought he was acting as if he were the Prime Minister of a sovereign nation. Finance Minister Tan Siew Sin of the MCA labelled Lee as the "greatest, disruptive force in the entire history of Malaysia and Malaya." Lee now seemed determined to press forward politically and continue contesting elections nationwide, with the formation of the Malaysian Solidarity Council—a coalition of political parties which called for a "Malaysian Malaysia", duplicating the effort introduced earlier by Dato' Onn Ja'afar.

On 7 August 1965, Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, seeing no alternative to avoid further bloodshed, advised the Parliament of Malaysia that it should vote to expel Singapore from Malaysia. Despite last-ditch attempts by PAP leaders, including Lee Kuan Yew, to keep Singapore as a state in the union, the Parliament on 9 August 1965 voted 126–0 in favour of the expulsion of Singapore.

Tunku opened his speech in Parliament with the words, "In all the 10 years of my leadership of this House I have never had a duty so unpleasant as this to perform. The announcement which I am making concerns the separation of Singapore from the rest of the Federation."[30][31] On that day, Lee Kuan Yew announced that Singapore was a sovereign independent nation and assumed the role of prime minister. After the separation and independence of Singapore in 1965, the Singapore branch of UMNO was renamed the Singapore Malay National Organisation (Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Singapura).

After the separation of Singapore from the Federation, the Alliance leaders focused on continuing its policies. One involved the Malay language, which was the official language of Malaysia. UMNO sought to reduce the reliance on English in government affairs. In this, it was aided by PAS, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, which backed special rights for the Bumiputra, and the strengthening of Islam's position in public affairs. However, the PAP's Malaysian branch, which had now become Democratic Action Party (DAP), took a very strong stance against this, and continued the expelled PAP's call for a "Malaysian Malaysia". In 1968, the newly formed Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia or Gerakan, led by Lim Chong Eu, also adopted the DAP's stance.[32]

Matters came to a head in the 1969 general election. When polling closed on the mainland peninsula (West Malaysia) on 10 May, it emerged the Alliance had won less than half of the popular vote, although it was assured of 66 out of 104 Parliamentary seats available. Much of the losses came from the MCA, thus straining relations between the two parties. However, the Alliance was dealt an even larger blow on the state level, losing control of Kelantan, Perak, and Penang.[33]

The Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) declared a national emergency after being advised by the national government to do so. Parliament was suspended, with a National Operations Council (NOC) led by Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak of UMNO, taking over the government. Further polling in East Malaysia as a continuation of the general election was also postponed indefinitely. Although the Cabinet still met under the Tunku as Prime Minister, his role was largely symbolic, with Tun Razak taking over the role of chief executive.[34]

UMNO backbencher Mahathir Mohamad, who had lost his Parliamentary seat in the election, wrote a letter to the Tunku criticising his leadership. Mahathir organised a campaign with University of Malaya lecturer Raja Muktaruddin Daim, circulating his letter among the student bodies of local universities. Mass demonstrations broke out calling for "Malay sovereignty" and the Tunku's ousting. After rioting broke out in June, Home Affairs Minister Ismail Abdul Rahman and Tun Razak agreed to expel Mahathir and former Executive Secretary of UMNO Musa Hitam from the party for breaching party discipline.

The suspended elections in East Malaysia were held in 1970, and restored the Alliance government's two-thirds majority in parliament. On 31 August that year, the Tunku announced the national ideology of Rukunegara and his planned retirement as Prime Minister in favour of Tun Razak. He also stated Parliament would be restored the following year.[35]

After Tun Razak succeeded the Tunku in 1970, he began asserting UMNO's leadership in the Alliance more strongly. When the Tunku led the coalition, he had always consulted Alliance leaders regarding policy—if an Alliance leader objected, the policy was not passed. Under Tun Razak, UMNO was the base of the Alliance and thus the government. The NOC which he led until Parliament reconvened consisted of 7 Malays, one Chinese and one Indian.[36]

In Tun Razak's cabinet, the two most powerful men other than him were Ismail Abdul Rahman and Ghazali Shafie, who had declared the Westminster-style Parliamentary system inappropriate for Malaysia. Tun Razak also readmitted to the party "ultras" who had been expelled, like Mahathir and Musa Hitam. Mahathir gained notoriety after his expulsion from UMNO by authoring The Malay Dilemma, a book promptly banned from Malaysia, which posited that the Malays are the definitive people of Malaysia, and thus deserved special rights as the sovereign people of the nation. It also controversially argued that the Malays needed affirmative action to overcome deficiencies in their genetic stock.[37]

Hussein Onn, son of UMNO founder Dato' Onn Ja'afar, soon became a rising star in UMNO. After Ismail died suddenly of a heart attack in 1973, Hussein Onn succeeded him as Deputy Prime Minister. In the cabinet reshuffle that promoted Hussein Onn, Mahathir was given the key post of Minister for Education.[38]

The Tun Razak government announced the New Economic Policy in 1971. Its stated goal was to "eventually eradicate poverty... irrespective of race" through a "rapidly expanding economy" which emphasised to increase the Malays' share in the national economy to a reasonable portion between all the races. The NEP targeted a 30 per cent Malay share of the economy by 1990. The government contended that this would lead to a "just society" ("Masyarakat Adil"), the latter slogan being used to promote acceptance of the policy. Quotas in education and the civil service that the Constitution had explicitly provided for were expanded by the NEP, which also mandated government interference in the private sector. For instance, 30% of all shares in initial public offerings would be disbursed by the government to selective Bumiputras. The old civil service hiring quota of 4 Malays for every non-Malay's was effectively disregarded in practice; between 1969 and 1973, 98% of all new government employees were Malay. Five new universities were opened under the NEP, two of which were targeted to focus on the poor Malays and Muslim citizens.[39]

Tun Razak also began shoring up the government by bringing in several former opposition parties into the fold of the Alliance. Gerakan, PPP, PAS, and several former opposition parties in East Malaysia joined the coalition, which was renamed as Barisan Nasional. Barisan was formally registered as an organisation in 1974, the same year in which a general election was held.[40]

There had been much internal conflict in the National Front regarding the election; in 1973, Lim Keng Yaik and several supporters of his aggressive pro-Chinese stance left the MCA for Gerakan. This contributed to internal strife, as the MCA was no longer the sole representative of Chinese interests in the National Front.[41]

Discontent among student organisations in Malaysian universities soon posed a new problem for the UMNO-led government. However, Mahathir in his capacity as Minister for Education issued a stern warning to university students and faculty not to become involved in politics. However, after stories that children of rubber tappers had died after consuming poisonous wild yam due to poverty, university students reacted by staging the 1974 Baling demonstrations. The demonstrations resulted in the arrest of over 1,000 students, including Anwar Ibrahim who wasdetained under the Internal Security Act. In 1975, parliament passed amendments to the Universities and University Colleges Act which banned students from expressing support of or holding positions in any political party or trade union without written consent from the university's Vice-Chancellor.[42] The act also banned political demonstrations from being held on university campuses. In 1976, however, mass demonstrations were held at the MARA Institute of Technology, protesting the UUCA. Mahathir then threatened to revoke the scholarships of the students, most of whom relied on public support to pay their way through university.[43]

BN was also challenged in Sarawak after the 1974 election, which saw the Sarawak National Party led by James Wong become tied with the DAP as the largest opposition party in Parliament, both of them holding nine seats each. SNAP had campaigned against BN on a platform of opposing Chief Minister Abdul Rahman Ya'kub's pro-Malay policies, charging them with alienating the rural indigenous natives of Sarawak, such as the Iban. SNAP had been expelled from the Alliance in 1965 for supporting increased autonomy for Sarawak. In the aftermath of the election, Abdul Rahman ordered the detention of James Wong under the Sedition Act. SNAP elected a new leader, Leo Moggie, who secured the release of Wong and the entry of SNAP into BN in 1976.[44]

In Sabah, BN controlled the state government through the United Sabah National Organisation (USNO), which strongly backed UMNO's pro-Malay and pro-Islam policies. In 1973, Islam was made the official Sabah state religion (the official religion of Sabah was originally Christianity, as permitted by the agreement signed before the merger), and usage of indigenous languages such as those of the Kadazan people was discontinued in favour of the Malay language. The USNO Chief Minister, Mustapha Harun, was also known for favouring political patronage as a means of allocating valuable timber contracts, and living an extravagant lifestyle, being ferried to his A$1 million Queensland home by jets provided with Sabahan public funds.[45]

Mahathir Mohamad

On 24 April 1987, UMNO held its Annual General Assembly and triennial Party election. The then Prime Minister and party President, Mahathir Mohamad, faced his first party election in 12 years, having been elected unopposed since the 1975 UMNO election.

The politics of the Malays, particularly UMNO politics, had undergone a sea change in the first few years of the Mahathir stewardship, and the party presidency was challenged for the second time in 41 years. The first challenge was a dull affair in which Hussein Onn was opposed by a minor party official named Sulaiman Palestin. In fact, in the early 1950s, Tunku Abdul Rahman's presidency had also been challenged by C. M. Yusof, who later became the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat, but Tunku was not properly considered an incumbent then, being only a care-taker president.

The 1987 contest was a vastly different matter. Mahathir was opposed by his very popular former Finance Minister, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. The press took to referring to Mahathir and his supporters as Team A, and Razaleigh's camp as Team B. Team B included then Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam, who was also the incumbent Deputy President of UMNO seeking re-election, as well as Datuk Suhaimi Kamaruddin, the former head of UMNO Youth and president of the Belia 4B youth organisation.[46]

Team B was critical of Mahathir's policies, arguing that the Malaysian New Economic Policy had failed to benefit the poor Malays. It also criticised Mahathir's leadership style, alleging he acted unilaterally without consulting other leaders in UMNO and the Barisan Nasional. Team B was also perceived as less Islamist than Mahathir's faction.[47]

Mahathir claimed that the charges against him were groundless, and suggested that his opponents were fracturing Malay unity and were only motivated by greed.[47]

Eventually, Mahathir was returned to office. However, he was elected with such a small majority of 43 (761 against 718 votes) that questions were immediately raised about his mandate. Team B supporters, many of whom had been anticipating a victory of similar margins, suspected that the election had been fixed. The Team B candidate for Deputy President, Musa Hitam, had also been defeated by Ghafar Baba of Team A, while two of the three vice-presidents were Team A candidates. The Supreme Council comprised 16 Team A candidates and 9 Team B candidates.[48]

Allegations were made that several delegates who had voted were drawn from UMNO branches not properly registered. There were also several unproved allegations being bandied about that the balloting process had not been above board.[49]

Nevertheless, Razaleigh pledged to support Mahathir, provided that a "witch hunt" was not launched. However, Mahathir promptly purged the government cabinet of all Team B members, and launched similar reshuffles in state and local governments.[50]

On 25 June 1987, an appeal was filed by 12 of the UMNO delegates to have the assembly and the election of April 1987 declared null. After one of the delegates, Hussain bin Manap, withdrew unexpectedly in August from filing the appeal, the remaining litigants have since become famous as the "UMNO 11." Although Razaleigh and Musa Hitam were not among the plaintiffs, it was widely believed that Razaleigh was funding the appeal.[49]

After a series of interlocutory hearings over the discovery of documents that took more than seven months, the matter finally came before Justice Harun Hashim in the Kuala Lumpur High Court on 4 February 1988. The judge ruled that under the existing law he had no option but to find the party, UMNO, to be an unlawful society due to the existence of several unregistered branches—an illegal act under the Societies Act of 1966. The question of the Assembly itself being illegal therefore became academic.[51]

"'It is a very hard decision to declare UMNO unlawful,' said Justice Datuk Harun Hashim in his February 4 judgement. 'But the law was made by our Parliament and certainly UMNO was aware [of the Societies Act] because they were in the majority [in Parliament] at all times [when the law was made].' Under the 1966 Act, amended five times over the years, and most recently by Mahathir's government, each of the society's branches has to register separately with the Registrar...."[51]

The Tunku and former UMNO President Hussein Onn set up a new party called UMNO Malaysia, which claimed to be the successor to the old UMNO. UMNO Malaysia was supported mainly by members of the Team B faction from UMNO, but Mahathir was also invited to join the party leadership. However, the party collapsed after the Registrar of Societies refused to register it as a society without providing an explanation.[52]

Mahathir showed no interest in reviving UMNO, and instead he set in motion the machinery to form a new surrogate party, and in due course, registered a party formally called Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Bersatu (Baru) or UMNO (New) a week after UMNO Malaysia's registration was rejected. Eventually the suffix "(New)" was dropped, and UMNO (Baru) became both the de facto and de jure successor of original UMNO, dropping the 'Baru' suffix with the old UMNO's assets handed over.[53] Most of its leaders, however, were selected from Team A of the old UMNO, with Team B ignored.[54]

In 10th general election in 1999, rocked by the arrest and trial of former UMNO deputy Anwar Ibrahim and the subsequent formation of the Barisan Alternatif opposition coalition, UMNO's share dipped to 54% of the vote and 102 out of 144 seats.

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi served as the 5th Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2003 to 2009.

Najib Tun Razak served as the 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2009 to 2018.

After Mahathir stepped down as President of UMNO in 2003, he was replaced by his designated successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who by virtue of his new position also became Prime Minister of Malaysia. Najib Razak, the son of Tun Abdul Razak, took over as the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia.

In the 11th general election in 2004, Barisan Nasional, under Abdullah's leadership, enjoyed a landslide victory. However, in the 12th general election in 2008, the coalition for the first time fell short of a two-thirds majority in the Parliament. UMNO Chief Ministers were ousted in the states of Selangor, Perak, Penang and Kedah. As a result, Abdullah resigned as President of UMNO and Prime Minister in 2009. He was succeeded by Najib.

Under Najib's leadership, UMNO gained a total of 9 seats in the 13th general election and retook the state of Kedah.

On 9 May 2018, Mahathir and the Pakatan Harapan coalition won the 14th General Election ending UMNO's 61 year long rule as part of the Alliance and later Barisan Nasional coalition.[55] UMNO experienced a mass exodus of rank-and-file members, state chiefs, as well as Members of Parliament in favour of Mahathir's Bersatu and regionalist parties such as Parti Warisan Sabah in the months after the election.[56][57][58]

In September 2019, UMNO decided to form a pact with the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party called Muafakat Nasional. Its main purpose is to unite the Malay Muslim communities for electoral purposes.[59] There is however no formal agreement with the other parties of Barisan Nasional, although there are calls for Barisan Nasional to migrate to Muafakat Nasional.[60][61] Barisan Nasional continued to function as a coalition of four parties comprising UMNO, MCA, MIC and PBRS, but aligned themselves with Perikatan Nasional to form a new government in March 2020 after the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government.[62]

On 23 February 2020, Muafakat Nasional pact of UMNO and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia held extraordinary meetings in Janda Baik, Pahang, UMNO's supreme council at Putra World Trade Centre.[63]

UMNO President, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi went to the Istana Negara in the evening to seek an audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. After the meeting, several opposition party leaders, including UMNO Vice President Ismail Sabri Yaakob joined Azmin's supporters at Sheraton Hotel.[64]

On 25 February, Following the first round of interviews, UMNO and PAS revealed that they have withdrawn their supports given earlier for Mahathir to continue as prime minister, and had instead called for parliament dissolution.[65] It was previously reported that as all political factions voiced their support for Mahathir, he was about to establish a "unity government" that the two parties could not agree with.[66][67] Annuar Musa, UMNO's secretary-general, said the basis of negotiations with Mahathir was that UMNO and PAS would lend their support to form an alternative coalition without DAP. Therefore, both PAS and UMNO declared their support for a snap election instead.[68]

On 28 February, All the Muafakat Nasional MPs signed the new SD proposing Muhyiddin Yassin to be the 8th Prime Minister.[69]

BERSATU President Muhyiddin Yassin and his allies including party leaders from UMNO, PAS, Gabungan Parti Sarawak, Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah, and Homeland Solidarity Party had an audience with the Agong.[70][71] He also announced that his coalition consisting of Bersatu, UMNO, PAS, PBRS, GPS, and STAR will be called Perikatan Nasional.

On 30 June, Salleh Said Keruak, former Sabah Minister Chief & former UMNO member canceled his application to join PKR after thinking deeply and taking into account today's political landscape including PKR's internal turmoil. He said, the decision was made last April and with the cancellation he remained non-partisan since leaving UMNO in 2018. Previously, Salleh applied to join PKR in October last year.[72]

On 24 July Zakaria Arshad, former CEO of FGV announced his departure from AMANAH to join UMNO. He said, the decision was made after he saw that the vision and objectives of Amanah were getting lost and not in line with his current position.[73]

In Muhyiddin cabinet, which formed on 10 March 2020, six UMNO MP's became Ministers & eight UMNO MP's became Deputy Ministers.

On 8 July 2021, the UMNO made an official announcement to withdrew its supports towards the Muhyiddin government,[74] citing the mismanagement of the COVID-19, the misuse of Emergency Declaration, and so on.[75]

On 21 August 2021, Ismail Sabri was formally appointed and sworn in as the ninth prime minister of Malaysia.[76]

Media reports from June 2018 indicated that the MACC froze bank accounts associated with UMNO, purportedly in relation to investigations into the 1MDB scandal.[78]

Every year, UMNO is obliged to hold the General Assembly to extend their rule according to the Clauses set by the Registry of Societies (RoS) Malaysia. And once every five years, UMNO is obliged to appoint their highest bodies. The last time UMNO held the election of the highest division and council level was on 19 October 2013. So the new election was supposed to be held on 19 April 2018. Their application for the postponement of the election until 19 October 2019 has to be approved by RoS in accordance with Clause 10.16. But critics have claimed that this is illegal and supposedly the existence of an UMNO organisation is banned.[79][80]

Umno Youth Leader Hishammuddin Hussein waded into controversy by brandishing the keris, a Malay sword's and symbol of Malay nationalism, at UMNO's 2005 annual general meeting. In response to concerns over the racial rhetoric, then Vice-President Muhyiddin Yassin said that "Although some sides were a bit extreme [this year], it is quite normal to voice feelings during the assembly."[81] The racially provocative act was criticized by opposition politicians as well as some Chinese politicians from the Barisan Nasional coalition.[82] In 2008, Hishammuddin conceded that the act had caused the coalition to lose support among non-Malay voters in that year's general election.[83]

In 2018, following the then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's announcement of the Seventh Mahathir cabinet's decision for the government to "ratify all remaining core UN instruments related to the protection of human rights", including International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and other five previously unratified conventions at a United Nations General Assembly, UMNO, PAS along with various non-governmental organisations, staged an Anti-ICERD Rally that was held at the Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur, to protest against the ratifications of the relevant international conventions, due to their perception that these human rights instruments contravene with the special position of the Malays, Bumiputera and Islam within the country; all of which are enshrined within the Malaysian Constitution.[84][85][86]

A new equity policy for bumiputeras in the Twelfth Malaysia Plan (12MP) attracted controversy which were announced by Ismail. It is said to ensure sustainable equity holdings by bumiputeras, an equity safety net would be launched to guarantee that the sale of shares or bumiputera-owned firms would only be sold solely to bumiputera-owned companies, consortium or individuals.[87][88] Syed Saddiq said that the new rulings were unfair as they would be tantamount to taking equity from the non-bumiputeras and giving them to bumiputeras. Former Health Minister, Dzulkefly Ahmad had also described the policy as "suicidal" and claimed that the new policy would only kill the bumiputera companies economically if that is their intention. He also said that based on the feedback from Malay businessmen, most were against the idea of the new bumiputera-only policy being implemented.[89] Ismail Sabri announced it after revealing that the government’s target to raise bumiputera equity ownership to 30% had yet to be achieved. He also announced funding to improve bumiputera businesses’ sustainability to hit 15% contribution in gross domestic product (GDP) by bumiputera micro, small and medium enterprises by 2025.[90]

In February 2020, UMNO leaders Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Ismail Sabri Yaakob, along with Bersatu President Muhyiddin Yassin, PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang and PKR defector members led by Azmin Ali, collectively convened at the Sheraton Petaling Jaya hotel to initiate a change in government, thus causing political instability by depriving the elected Pakatan Harapan government of a majority within the 14th Malaysian Parliament. As a result, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (along with the Seventh Mahathir cabinet) tendered their resignation.[91][92][93] In March 2020, after the Yang di-Pertuan Agong consulted all members of the 14th Malaysian Parliament, Muhyiddin Yassin was deemed to have the greatest support within Parliament and was selected as the 8th Prime Minister of Malaysia (without an electoral mandate).[94][95]

In July 2021, further political instability ensued when UMNO, at the direction of its President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, withdrew support for the government led by Muhyiddin along with his cabinet. Zahid claimed that as Muhyiddin failed to spearhead economic recovery and effectively handle the Covid-19 pandemic, therefore Zahid claimed Muhyiddin failed to fulfil the conditions underlined by UMNO when it backed Muhyiddin to become prime minister in March 2020.[96][97][98] In August 2021, after the Yang di-Pertuan Agong required all members of the 14th Malaysian Parliament to submit a statutory declaration (SD) indicating their preference of Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob possessed the greatest support within Parliament (with 114 affirmative SDs out of a possible 222) and was selected as the 9th Prime Minister of Malaysia (without an electoral mandate).[99]

[100]

[101]

[102]

Official source

UMNO has 38 MPs in the House of Representatives.

State	No.	Parliament Constituency	Member	Party
Perlis	P001	Padang Besar	Zahidi Zainul Abidin		UMNO
	P003	Arau	Dr. Shahidan Kassim		UMNO
Kedah	P007	Padang Terap	Mahdzir Khalid		UMNO
	P016	Baling	Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim		UMNO
Kelantan	P026	Ketereh	Annuar Musa		UMNO
	P029	Machang	Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub		UMNO
	P032	Gua Musang	Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah		UMNO
Terengganu	P033	Besut	Idris Jusoh		UMNO
Penang	P041	Kepala Batas	Reezal Merican Naina Merican		UMNO
Perak	P055	Lenggong	Shamsul Anuar Nasarah		UMNO
	P061	Padang Rengas	Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz		UMNO
	P067	Kuala Kangsar	Mastura Mohd. Yazid		UMNO
	P069	Parit	Mohd. Nizar Zakaria		UMNO
	P073	Pasir Salak	Tajuddin Abdul Rahman		UMNO
	P075	Bagan Datuk	Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi		UMNO
Pahang	P078	Cameron Highlands	Ramli Mohd. Nor		UMNO
	P079	Lipis	Abdul Rahman Mohamad		UMNO
	P081	Jerantut	Ahmad Nazlan Idris		UMNO
	P084	Paya Besar	Mohd. Shahar Abdullah		UMNO
	P085	Pekan	Mohd. Najib Abdul Razak		UMNO
	P086	Maran	Ismail Abdul Muttalib		UMNO
	P087	Kuala Krau	Ismail Mohamed Said		UMNO
	P090	Bera	Ismail Sabri Yaakob		UMNO
	P091	Rompin	Hasan Arifin		UMNO
Selangor	P095	Tanjong Karang	Noh Omar		UMNO
Putrajaya	P125	Putrajaya	Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor		UMNO
Negeri Sembilan	P126	Jelebu	Jalaluddin Alias		UMNO
	P127	Jempol	Mohd. Salim Shariff		UMNO
	P131	Rembau	Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar		UMNO
Malacca	P139	Jasin	Ahmad Hamzah		UMNO
Johor	P147	Parit Sulong	Noraini Ahmad		UMNO
	P153	Sembrong	Hishammuddin Hussein		UMNO
	P155	Tenggara	Adham Baba		UMNO
	P156	Kota Tinggi	Halimah Mohamed Sadique		UMNO
	P157	Pengerang	Azalina Othman Said		UMNO
	P164	Pontian	Ahmad Maslan		UMNO
Sabah	P176	Kimanis	Mohamad Alamin		UMNO
	P187	Kinabatangan	Bung Moktar Radin		UMNO
Total	Perlis (2), Kedah (2), Kelantan (3), Terengganu (1), Penang (1), Perak (7), Pahang (9), Selangor (1), F.T. Putrajaya (1), Negeri Sembilan (3), Malacca (1), Johor (6), Sabah (2)